
aass_L-4-5 ^- 
Book i2) 



OUll SOLDIERS IN THE FIELD- ARE THEY NO 

LONGER THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THEIR 

FELLOW CITIZENS AT HOME? 



—*-•—•-*— 



SPEECH OF COLONEL T. C. H. SMITH, 

DELIVERED IN THE COURT HOUSE, AT MARIETTA, 
Sativrday Evening, Feb. 21, 1863. 



Col. Smith being at home, on his way 
West, was invited by a number of lus 
fellow-citizens in Marietta, to addmss (lie 
people upon the War and (he Condition oT 
the Country. He accepted the invitation, 
and on Saturday morning, February 2Jst, 
public notice was given of the meeting for 
that evening, in the Court House, at 0,'^ 
o'olock. The Court Room was filled to 
overliowing, the standing places being oc- 
cupied. Quite a number of ladies graced 
the meeting with their presence. Col. Wm. 
R. Putnam was called to the Chair. 

On taking the stand, Col. Smith proceeded 
in a conversational manner to give some 
account of the Washington county soldiers 
whom he had met in the field. He first 
lueiitioned Company L, First Ohio Cavalry, 
a company raised chiefly in Harmar, Ma- 
rietta, and vicinity, under the command of 
Capt. T. J. Pattin. It was a very fine 
company, under fine carbine drill, and 
Pattin was a superior officer. He excelled 
in the handling of his men, and in the 
figJiting drill. The fight at Carolina Church, 
near Corinth, last Spring, was instanced, 
where Capt. Pattin, with only 48 men of 
his own and another company, successfully 
repulsed 250 rebel cavalry, who charged 
repeatedly upon his command, but after a 
fight of three quarters of an hour, were 
driven off by Capt. Pattin's superior skill 
and tactics and pluffk, with a loss of five 
killed and twenty wounded. Seven only 
of Capt. Pattin's men were wounded, but 
not one broke ranks till the fight was over ! 



Col. Smith then paid flattering tribute to 
the 39th and 63d Regiments, in which 
Wasiiingfon county is strongly represented. 
He gave full credit to the 77(h for i(s con- 
duct at Shiloh, and paid Col. Hildebrand 
a very high and deserved compliment for 
his heroic action. After (he battle of 
Pittsburg Landing, Col. Smith went upon 
the field, and met a sergeant, who said he 
belonged to the 12(h Illinois, and at once 
began (elling about (he battle. This ser- 
geant said: "Our field officers were all 
gone, when a Col. Hildebrand came along, 
rallying the men. He gathered up parts of 
four regiments, and we all fought under 
Col. Hildebrand the rest of the day." In 
answer to a question, " Who is Col. Hilde- 
brand?" the sergeant replied, "I don't 
know to what regiment he belongs, or what 
State he is from, but I tell you he is the 
real grit!" [Applause.J 

The 36th, Col. Smith first saw at War- 
renton Junction, and the sight of the regi- 
ment was enough to do the heart of a 
Washington county man good; no one 
could see it and not feel the strongest emo- 
tions of pride; its drill was extraordinary. 

Gen. , a Regular, and a Mexican 

war veteran, remarked in his (Smith's) 
hearing : " That is the best Volunteer Reg- 
iment I ever saw." 

Col. Smith then proceeded : 

Now, what spirit sent these men into the 
field ? That which broke out in the Free 
States, when the guns of traitors opened 
against Sumter. That which Democracy 



2 



throughout the world felt when it heard 
resound the first blow struck against its 
supremacy in this land. The unanimous 
sentiment that forgot party, thought only 
of the country, gavw men and treasure 
without stint, and accompanied with mill- 
ions of acclamations the march of these 
troops to the field. That sentiment re- 
mains among the soldiers uru-harifjed — only 
deepened, confirmed. Have you changed V 
A.re we no longer your representatives V 

If you have changed, what are your 
reasons? We desire to know them. The 
sooner the better. We have looked in vain 
to your public discussions for any consist- 
ent ground of opposition to this war, for 
Anything that will bear the light. 

is it the doctrine of peaceable secession, 
that treason, assuming- the garb of States 
iiights Democracy, put forth? Is it the 
right of revolution, or of separate nation- 
ality, that a crude radicalism was willing, 
when the outbreak occurred, to concede, 
and bid the revolting States go in peace? 
Has the length or the cost of the war chan- 
ged you? Has the destruction of slavery, by 
the application of the laws of war, chilled 
your ardor ? 

Let us briefly consider all these : 

First, this puerility of peaceal)le seces- 
sion. I am a States Eights Democrat of 
the school of Tiiomas Jeflerson and John 
Taylor of Caroline. I shall fight under that 
banner as long as I breathe. 1 shall always 
go with those who resist consolidation, 
who confine the powers of our National 
(government to the strict letter of its writ- 
ten charter, the Constitution of the United 
States. I hold that Constitution to have 
been the work of the people of the several 
States, and I know that by its terms it is 
referred to the people of the several States, 
in conventions or by their Legislatures, for 
ratification of amendments. From them, in 
such capacity only, the National Govern- 
ment derives its life.. To them, in suchcapa- 
city,in their caaacity os people of the several 
Stales, it returns from time to tim?, to have 
its life modified, renewed. 

But within these limits the National 
Goveriunent is supreme. The States are 
not interposed between it and tlie people, 
in the exercise of its legitimate powers, 
and cannot be. It constitutes our people, 
a nation. . It is as much the direct Govern- 
ment of the people of the States as their 
Stale Governments. 



And it is jvo'petual. There is no limita- 
tion of the duration of our national life; 
there is no provision for its destruction — 
only for its renewal, for its duration to tlie 
end of time. And woe be to those who 
would attem])t this national life, who would 
destroy this nation ! 

These are the cardinal doctrines of 
States Eights Democracy. There is in 
them no furtive or sinister glance towards 
the morbid and suicidal teachings of seces- 
sion. Firm in their great office of protect- 
ing the mass of sovereignty reserved to 
the States, they yield to the National Gov- 
ernment every just support, and their eyes 
turned steadily upon it in these great hour? 
of its trial, are clear with truth and 
fidelity. 

I/et us, however, for the sake of the ar- 
gument, turn our backs upon it, as traitors 
and semi-traitors do, looking in every di- 
rection but. that to which loyalty points. 
Suppose that the bond between these 
States is but tliat of a treaty of amity and 
comiuerce between States, as independent 
as England and Fraace. And is not any 
attempt to recede from such a treaty prior 
to its period of limitation, or if perpetual, 
then at any time,' a casus Mli. a just cause 
for war ? And would it not be the duty of 
any nation thus injured 1o punish the 
breach of faith; and to compel a renewed 
observance of treaty ol)ligations? 

Suppose that the Constitution of the 
United States is more than a treaty of 
commerce and amity, and is a treaty of 
perpetual alliance. Do not the crime of 
infraction and the cause of war corres- 
pondingly increase? Are these not still 
greater if it amounts to a League? a Con- 
federation ? 

Certainly you will admit tliat it is some- 
thing more than any of these, than all 
these; and if you do, what becomes of 
peaceable secession ? It is an absurdity, 
a chimera. Turn your backs upon it, and 
regard it no longer. Cast your looks upoa 
our National Government. Consult your 
duties in its contemplation. It is more 
jthan a treaty, a League, a Confederation. 
[It is a Government. It is your Govern- 
ment and mine. It was made by the peo- 
ple. Its life is their own. Tiiey have 
conferred upon it the rjght of i)reservation, 
jif need be, by the stern laws of war. It 
lis treason to resist it. And, while the law 
'acts only on overt treason, beware also of 



IN EXCHANGE 

JUN 5 1917 



that spirit of treason which, if persisted 
in, will lead to overt acts. 

If you wish to study the causes of a 
pestilence, <^o to the place where it began. 
There you will see in naked and apparent 
force the poisonous influences whicli orig- 
inated it, and which elsewhere, tliough 
more hidden and not jtotent enough to have 
brought it nito existence, supply its food 
and are sufficient to maintain its de9,dly 
spread. 

Wliere, then, did the doctrine of seces- 
sion originate ? In the Eastern Parishes of 
South Carolina. Yon are aware that the 
Constitution of that State gives to those 
"arishes, which are mostly filled by slaves, 
.m undue proportion of the Legislature, 
xnd thus constitutes a virtual Aristocracy, 
•■nabling it by this property representation 
to dominate over the much larger white 
population of the Western portions of the 
State. The Governor is not elected by 
jM)pular vote, but l)y the Legislature. The 
wiiole system existing there is the farthest 
removed from popular government of any 
in the United States. And the clasfe that 
rules there, though from tlie fact of its 
owning labor alHed by interest in certain 
provinces of Federal legislation with I)e- 
mocracy,has never been so in spirit, and has 
always shown itself in its State legislation 
its deadly enemy. 

At the beginning of his political career, 
.lohn C. Calhoun, a man of great intellect, 
but not regarded by his neighl)orS as pos- 
sessed of high courage, contended against 
this class. He was crushed, and became 
their supple tool, the defender of their spe- 
cial privileges in the government of his 
State, the exponent of their ideas, the rep- 
resentative man not only of this aristocratic 
•Jass in South Carolina, but of all who af- 
liliated with them in other States. He 
perverted the true doctrines of States 
Rights, falsely deducing from them princi- 
ples at variance with those of the fathers, 
and intended not to check but to destroy 
our National Government. 

It was in these P^astern Parishes that the 
secession conspiracy, instructed and com- 
pacted by the subtle brain ef Calhoun, 
■originated. It was there that the first at- 
tempt was made to take a State out of the 
Union, thirty years ago; that attempt 
which Jackson defeated. It was there 
that the lirst gun was fired which began 
this war; there that a slaveholding Aris- 



tocracy began this bloody contest against 
Democracy. 

Neither have the secessionists any proper 
claim to the right of revolution. Republi- 
cans cannot recognize the right to revolu- 
tionize a Government of the people, to 
sul)siitute for it a Government of a class. 
But if any right of revolution can be found 
in popular government as such, the obliga- 
tion that its freedom imposes is such that 
i-evolution must only be the last resort, not 
the first; must wait till the safeguards 
that conserve the rights of the minoi-ity 
have been successively overleaped, and the 
offensive measures passed, befoi-e its right 
can accrue. Every right, every privilege, 
carries with it and imposes a corresponding 
duty. The corresponding duty to the right 
and privilege of governmental liberty, is 
this : that inasmuch as a free government 
dispenses as far as possible with force, 
conceding to each individual, and to each 
minor organization of society within its 
limits, the largest liberty consistent with 
the liberty of others, force should only be 
adopted when all legal resistance has fail- 
ed. Without this obligation, liberty de- 
stroys itself, and is mere anarchy. Of all 
Governments, i-epublics have the right t<i' 
be and should be the sternest in the en- 
forcement of such mild political obligationis 
as their laws imjw.se. 

Thus the secessionists, by their revolt, 
not only violated the law, but, tried with- 
out the pale of law slid by abstract prin- 
ciples, are guilty of the highest of crimes 
against liberty. They do not pretend that 
any mea^iure was passed b3- the General 
Government impairing their rights under' jr 
and we all remember that the balance of ' 
pai'ties, at the time of the outbreak, was 
such as to make the jiassage of any such 
measure impossiUe. U the Democratic 
party had, by the violence of these seces- 
sionists, been demoralized, divided and de- 
feated, there was stiil a majority in the 
Senate adverse to the Kepublicans. The 
resolutions of the Ilepublicans at Chicago 
were greatly more moderate in tone and 
more conservative than those at Philadel- 
phia in the previous Presidential canvass, 
and tlie legislative measures in regard to 
tlie territories passed, with a Republican 
majority in Congres.s, in the winter after 
Lincoln's election, accorded with the doc- 
trines of the Douglas Democracy rather 
than with those of the Republican party. 



Oa what, in sucli a stale of things as this, I place a very ]avise \)vu}wvi'um of their num- 
oan you base a ri.uht of revolution? he "s in the field; that tlies-e would be no 

Certainly no member of the Democratic shive insurrections to weaken them; and 
party can concede this light to these se-ilhpt shivery in tliose Stales would have to 
cessionists. At Clia^'leston we offered them .be liroken up, to presirve the Union. 
all that our principles would allow us to .My reading in (he matter maybe im- 
concede. We said wliat we would do, and perfect, l)ut I have yet to learn of any for- 
what we would not do. Wliat we would midable or <;eiieral rising among negro 
do they declared to be insufficient, and slaves, afler being held for a iew uenera- 
prepa red to (/rcny <Ac.swo/v/. They did moie. ■Ii')n8 in servitude. Tiie insurrection in 
They endeavored to defeat the election of a Hayli was caused by an attempt to reduce 
President by the people, in order the better the blacks to slavery after tliey had been 
to inaugurate disorder and rebellion. And enlVanciiised by law. It was an insurrec- 
thev took care that if any President should tion of freemen, not of slaves. Tliose 
be elected hy the people, it should be t lie among us who have such apprehensions of 
candidate of the Republican party. In insurrection, will do well (o study tiiis in- 
view of the legislation in regard to \\\q ter- stance, and in accordsince with tlseir views 
ritories, the preceding winter, and of our oppose, any attempt to return the slaves of 
attitude at Charleston, the Democratic Ireliels. made free b}^ tiie late proclamation, 
party, when the secessii)nists drew (he to slavery again. They will thus aid iu 
sword, was as thoroughly committed to secuiiiig us from a reproduction of tlve 
the war as the bitterest abolitionist , in the bloody scenes of Hayti within our borders, 
land. We took our position, and I for onej Why the South can place the bulk of its 
have seen no reason to recede from it. | white population in (lie held, is easily seen. 

x\s regards the right of separate nation- A lew years ago an ingenious book, Help- 
ality, it can be said to exist only where a er's '^ Impending Crisis," was much circula- 
nation has had a previous separate exist-' ted by some perhaps too willing to blind 
ence. The people of tliis land have al- i themselves as to the power of the South, 
ways been one in nationality, and we' The fallacy of this book lay in this, that i.t 
intend with the blessing of God to preserve 'compared the pound crojjs and various 
them so. lother productions of the iNortli, which rep- 

Has the lengtli of the war changed your resented in great part but the necessary 
opinion as to its justice and necessity ? consumption of our climate in excess of the 
lias its cost? Is not the true economy to | milder Southern latitudes, with the agricul- 
tight it .,out now, once and for all, and tural products of the slave States; and 
thereby prevent forever its recurrence? from the very great excess of these upon 
Has the strength of the South changed I our side of the balance sheet, inferred an 
your convictions? Was that your idea, to 'enormous superiority of wealth in the 
maintain the Union if treason should prove, North, whereas wealth is the excess of 
.weak, but to yield its cause should treason production over necessary consumirtion. 
prove strong? The hay crop, for instance, the bulk of 

It is this military strength of the South,! which with us is necessarily consumed iu 
hosed as it is an slavery, that has made it feeding our stock through long winters, was 
necessary to choose between Slavery and I reported in full in this work. But what 
the Union; and we have decided accord- dillerence does it make, in the matter of 
insily that it shall mt be the Union that wealth, whether the grass in the flelds has 
hliail be destroyed, but it sMI he slavery. been cut by the scythe, gathered and fed 
For one, I aiiticipate'd this at the begin-|out to the cattle, through the winter 
ning- of the war, and expressed to friends months, or whether it is cut by the teeth ot 
the" apprelionsioii founded on observali(m the cattle themselves, grazed by them in 
in those States, that the population of the inontiis iu which in a northern climate the 
more southern States, whose economical, : fields are bound in frost and snow. Simi- 
politic^l^and social system was more ex- lar reasoning will apply to our root crops 
clusively1)ased on slavery, would be found, and grain. 

because of their want of' industrial devel- It recpures hardly more than one-third 
opmenis, peculiarly disposed to war; that of the labor, to give a white laboring man 
their system of labor would allow theiu to a comfortable support in the plantation 



states on the Gulf, that is necessary on 
the Lakes. If we consider the essentials 
of food, clothin?;, the liouse and fuel, we 
sliall Ihid that the amount and description 
of these required in the southern family 
make tiieir cost less than 40 per cent, of 
what is needed in the North. Tlie fariiier 
south, the more vejj!,etable food and cotton 
clothing are all that are wanted. The 
farther north, the more expensive supplies, 
as meats for food, and woolens for cloth- 
ing, and these in greatei- <(uantity, are re- 
quired. In the North houses are buile sol- 
idly, and with a care to resist the ri,u,ors of 
the climate. In the South you often (ind 
even wealthy planters living in "mere 
sliells." The ease of living, in short, more 
than compensates for any enervating- influ- 
ence of the Southern climate on the white. 
It is from causes growing out of the degra- 
dation of labor that the mass of poor 
whites in the South c:ire little for comforts 
or retinements, or to accumulate wealth. 

It is for these reasons that the enforcel 
lalnr of the planting States is an enormous 
source of wealth. An hour or two of the 
negro's labor per day pays his master the 
cost of his sxipport. The rest of the ten, 
twelve, or fifteen hours of his labor, gives 
the' masters their wealth — the incomes 
from which come the high salaries that the 
white employees of the South receive, and 
the dispensation of which makes the own- 
ers of slaves tiie ruling class. 

The power of such a social and political 
system applied in war is at once seen. The 
slave labor is sufficient to sustain in ease 
the entire population. Nearly the whole 
while population, capable of bearing arms, 
can be put into the field, and with much 
less violence to its habits than military 
service brings in the case of a people of 
' high industrial civilization. Had the se- 
ceding States half our numbers, had the 
character of its people less i)assion and 
more persistence, it could with its ports 
®pen, tight us evenly for many years. 

These considerations, wiiiJe they show 
us the strength of the rebellion, make it all 
the more imperative that we put forth all 
the power that our resources, and the laws 
of war, give us to prevent its success. They 
show us what kind of a neighl)or we shall 
have if we allow ourselves to fail. 

We must look the power and the charac- 
ter of the system with which we contend 
in the face, in order to know our duties and 



how to perform them. Otherwise we shall 
fail in a contest with a class which, through 
years of counseling witlia view to this con- 
test, has accjuired unity of sentiment and, 
distinct |)urposes. They well understand 
the nature of the struggle. We also must 
know ourselves and them. The evidences 
are many and plain, that it was the spread 
of Democratic .sentiment and the impulse 
towards poi)ular jeforms among their own 
pe(>ple, which they dreaded most of all, and 
which they determined to control, by sepa- 
rating themselves from tlie fiee people of 
the North - . • 

The seceding States liave thus far in 
our n'ational history, shown no proficiency 
— achieved no distinction — in art, in litera- 
ture, in science, tior in the mechanic arts. 
Tiieir great men have been statesmen or 
soldiers oidy. Their system of labor has 
cramped their development in all tho.se di- 
rections, which belong to a high industrial 
civilization, and afford a guaranty of peace. 
The nation (hey would form would find its 
pride in war and conquest; its men of ge- 
nius and talent would seek their careei- 
only in diplomacy or arms. The masses of 
its people vi'ould remain what they are 
[)roving themselves now, ignorant and will- 
ing instruments. We should resist the 
creation of such a state as strenuously as 
we would that of a monarchy. Its pres- 
ence on our border would re(|uire the main- 
tenance of an army, whose yearly expen- 
diture would far exceed the interest of any 
debt we can incur in crushing this rebel- 
lion, and would operate to change our 
republican institutions and impeiil our 
liberties. 

J>ut these are not the greatest dangers 
to be feared. 1 cannot express my appre- 
hensions in any less degree than by saying 
at once that it is my deliberate conviction 
that the contest in which we are engageci 
is not more a matter of life and death 
to the South than it is to us ; and that we 
have to-day to choose between tlie. viler sup- 
pression of this 7-ehellion, or an anarcluj toith a 
million and a half of men uivier arm^. Con - 
cede a separate existence to the so-called 
Confederate States, and what would be 
the result upon the States now united un- 
der the National Flag 'i Can we not read 
the signs of the times ? Are they not so 
plain that he who runs may read? New- 
combinations of interests, new disruptions 
must ensue, and wars to which the blood 



6 



and burthen of the present are but child's 
play, wars hero at home — war at your 
doors. 

Tliere is one way by which to prevent 
these evils, to make sure and consolidate all 
our success as the war proceeds, and that 
is, to phick away and ilestwy tlie corner- 
stone of the superstructure these traitors: 
endeavor to raise, and thus prevent forever i 
the possibility of its construction. . 

It was due to the people of the loyal! 
slave States that a faitlifid etfort should be! 
made to preserve the Union and the sMum : 
*jf. slavery as it existed b*iore the war. i 
And such faithful effort was uiiquestionj 
ably made. As for the rebels they never! 
fiad any rights in this regard after they! 
drew the swo)'d. The laws of war give the! 
right to <lecree emancipafion, and who willi 
protend to say that these laws should be 
more mildly construed and enforced, be- 1 
'-ause wo are dealing with traitors in arms?! 
While there is no direct provision in thcj 
roustitulion foremancipation, the war povv- i 
cr gives it, and thank ( Jod that it does. ] 
Is there, however, one man in tins com-' 
f lunity, is there one man of northern brain 
and nortiiern heart, l)red under free insti- 
mtions, who will feel no satisfaction, will 
lind it in no sense whatever one of the 
i<>mpensafions of this war, if the blood 
which is poured out so freely to preserve 
<>«r national unity and vindicate the au- 
ihoritv of Hepublif^an (iovernment, siiall at 
the same time wipe out from our national 
t'scutcheon the stain that has clouded half 
it-s bars, and furnished argument to the en- 
emies of freedoni in the old world where- 
with to decry its friends in the uevv' ? Is 
there one man among us who, whatever 
may be his doubts, as to the benefit free- 
dom may prove to the black race, is not 
willing to invoke the blessing of God to go 
with the boon? If there is one such man, 
let us pity him ! 

There is a consequence of emancipation 
much apprehended, which, if it occur, will 
certainly belie all experience in regard to 
the Afriean. viz : that there will be a large 
inllux of negroes into the Northern States, 
ft is certain that heretofore the mass of 
those that have come among us iiave been 
impelled to it l)y the pressure of slavery in 
the South. It is not probable one in o:ie 
hundred of the blacks that have com*^ into 
the free States would have left the South 
of choice. The constitution of the black 



man impels him tyuHU'd the warm countries, 
not from them. It is certain that some sys- 
tem will prevail in the South, employing 
black labor. It is certain that the capa- 
bility of the negro for labor is as inferior 
to that of the white in a northern climate, 
as it is superior in a Southern, and that 
thus as a laborer the negro must seek the 
South. It is equally certain that if he wishes 
to live with as little labor as possible, he 
can live more easily iii idleness in a. South- 
ern climate than here. All our knowledge 
of negroes leads us to suppose that so far 
from their numbers increasing among us as 
a consequence of the abolition of slavery 
the contrary tiiay be expected, and that 
many of those who are now among us. will 
emigrate Southward, when the opportuni- 
ty shall be opened for them. Whether ail 
should be coniident in this conclusion or 
not, certain it is, that they are rash who 
are confident of any other! 

But whatever may be our opinion as to 
the expediency of emancipation we are 
bound as loyal men to sustain it, and every 
other luiofid mMvvire which our Government 
may adopt, to put down this reljellion. 1 
do not, foiN one, approve of the employment 
of negro soldiers, l)ut I expect to do what 
every one should do, yield the .measure a 
loyal support. 

Parties should be maintained and their 
lawful check upon each other is always 
needed. ]>ut no party should be allowed 
to exist now, or at any time, that is not 
thoroughly and unmistakably loyal. It is 
one thing 'to maintain parties, and another 
to make them factions, to destroy the Gov- 
ernment; it is their healthy olHce to invig- 
orate and preserve. These may be truisms, 
Imt they should be kept in mind. !Xo man 
should be voted for who is wanting in pat- 
riotic and loyal zeal and determination 
fully to support the Government in allnec- 
essarv measures, or who countenances dis- 
loyalty in others. The bane of free Gov- 
ernments has been jjarty violence, and 
many of them from this cause have been 
overthiown. This is a time in which to 
remember this, and to rise above party 
and look to the country and that aloiie. 

.Vnd this, too, is the time in which to 
summon up and put in force the (lualities 
of courage and endurance, without which 
no nation can be great. Wars are more 
often won bv ])lucky persistence and game 
than bv aught else. Jellerson Davis un- 



defstands this well, and constantly en- 
deavors to inspire his followers witli this 
spirit. In a late speech he declared that 
the South had endured for a year unllinch- 
ingly the severest pressure of war, but that 
the North when at length it feeis the pres- 
ure, at the lirst touch of the gail' shows a 
disposition to lly the ring ! Do any of you 
feel this taunt V Have any of yon felt lliis 
disposition ? Washington county was lirst 
settled by soldiers of the Kevolution, and 
she lias never failed yet to respond tu the 
wants of the country in men and means. — 
.Sons of the men of 1812 ! Grandsons of 
the men of the Kevolution ! Is it you who 
v/ill fail now? The sacrifices that they 
made are we not ready to repeat? It is 
llie diviuQ law tliat all strength and purity 
of character can only be acquired by sac- 
•ritice. The life of nations is not in this 
respect different from the life of inditidual 
men. Every trial our people endure, every 
sacrifice we make, will be returned to us as 
a nation a thousand fold. 

We have considered here, to-night, the 
power of the Soutli, and our dangers, and 
have endeavored to look these fully in the 
face. Let us now, before separating, look 
at some of the -grounds of encouragement. 

And lii'st, let us remember that all wars 
of any magnitude are filled with varying 
success and failure, and at intervals vvilli 
great discouragement. It is the boast of 
England that she is ready to begin fighting 
when those ^\\lO contend with her are 
ready to ([uit. In all her wars she has 
begun with blunders and failure. She has 
succeeded nearly always in the end by her 
great qualities of courage and endurance. 
Success in war is a <iuestion of physical 
and moral exhaustion : physical exhaus- 
tion by the loss of men and material; 
moral exhaustion by the demoralization of 
defeat. 

V\'e have acquired a large portion of the 
territory of the seceding States; but that 
we have no more, proves nothing against 
our speedy success. Kussia became ex- 
hausted at Sebastopol, and made an igno- 
minious peace, when the allies had hardly 
penetrated a day's ride into her territory. 

The rebels are now for the first time, 
since their conscription, feeling sorely the 
need of men. I am informed by Southern 
Union men, well able to judge, that the se 
ceding populati^i had not in all at the be- 
ginning of the war to exceed 500,000 men 



that could do service in tiie field, and that 
atthis time they have not to exceed 2.50,0(K^ 
effective' men in the (jonfederate armies- 
Their Stales have an enrolled force, corrc^s- 
))onding \vith our liome guards, or three 
montlis' men, for service in the protection 
of their cities on the coast, and for police; 
l)ut these are of little avail to bear the 
brunt of the Avar. 

Again tlie reoels now feel for ihe first 
time the full o])eia1ion of the blockade in 
depriving them ofwar sujjplies. They had 
at the beginning, as has any country, in the 
siiops and storehouses of their merchants 
and in their homes sujjpiies of clqths and 
leather on hand sullicient, perhaps, for a 
year. These were appropriated in great 
part tor their armies in the field and art" 
now consumed. They are almost out of 
leather and woolens; and without these, 
troops cannot be maintained in the field 
without great loss from sickness by ex- 
l)osure. 1'he occasional passage of a ves- 
sel through the blockade cannot prove suf- 
ficient to maintain great armies in the field. 

We must remenibei', too, that the reac- 
tionary influence among us is corresponded 
to b}^ a reactionary spirit among them. The 
revolt in Northern (Georgia and the moun- 
tain portions of North Carolina, are but 
the beginnmg of what must more and more 
curb the power of the i-ebellion, as its mil- 
itary strength wanes. The intercepted 
dispatches and letters of the rebel leaders 
to their emissaries in Europe, and those 
between their generals, and all we know of 
them, seem to indicat<^ that their strength 
has passed its culminating point, while 
otus, as we know, but begins to culminate. 
Those who know the character of the peo- 
ple of the seceding States, know that the 
rebellion when it ends will probably end as 
suddenly as it Ifeegan. A single great 
Union victory would, to-day, cause it to 
tremble throughout with throes of dissolu- 
tion. 

I>ut let us st ill look to our own strengtli 
and determination lor success, for it is im- 
possible that they can long maintain their 
unholy cause if we put forth our poAverand 
persevere. 

And, my friends, to conclude, if we can- 
: not attain success, let us at least deserve 
I it. If we are to yield, if we are to behold 
a new nation established on this Continent 
I with slavery as its corner stone, with its 
people in ignorance, and wielded by the 



8 



;^trong hand of a military aristocracy for 
purposes of ageiression and conquest, and 
in turbulent and formidable and eternal an- 
tagonism with the free industiial democracy 
who have supposed that this land was a 
heritage given them of God; if (his must 
be, let not you nor I be found in the number 
'.)f those who did not exert all their inilu- 
ence and ail their powers to prevent it. 
AVhen our soldiers return, what will be their 
feeling towards these men, who, having first 
joined in the millions of acclamations which 
.tttended their march to the field, Ihen 
turned against them, decried their motives, 
sneered at their efforls, had only denuncia- 
tions of the war and complaints of its 
burthens, discouraged enlistments, encour- 
aged desertions, knelt to armed tieason, 
otfered tribute to it, invited its rule, and 
only rose from this despicable attitude 
when it had utterly spurned their abject 
profler. What the feeling of our volun- 
teers will be you may discern now, as you 
see them in the field, turning to send one 
curse back upon the traitors at home before 
grasping their muskets to march against 
the traitors in their front. 

May God change the hearts of these 
men, inspire them again with loyalty, pa- 
triotism, and that spirit of sacrifice in fa- 
vor of freedom which can alone make 
worthy of it. But if they will ])ot change, 



if they will still persist in aiding the erie- 

mies of our national life — the enemies of 

human progress itself — then I pray equally 

that by some means, by any means, they 

ma;^y in the vengeance of God be driven 

from our border* — yes, if need be, scourged 

from the face of the earth. And I tell you 

that the one sole satisfaction there is in 

looking forward to the troubles they would 

1 bring upon us, is that when they begin 

their treasonable work openly we shall at 

I least be able to get at them with arms in 

jour hands. I would rather to-day fight 

jthem than fight the rebels who follow Jef- 

I ferson Davis. They, at least, /ire true to 

'a- bad cause. These men are true to no 

j cause, and can be true to none. They are 

'pure gangrene on the body politic, for 

1 which the sharpest are the only remedies 

— caustic and steel. Apply the caustic 

|wheno»er they show a disloyal symptom, 

and stand always ready, if violated law 

requii'e it, to give them the steel ! 

[ In our report, the " cheers," "applause," 
&c., are left out, but the audience often 
made manifestations of great satisfaction ; 
otherwise there was' almost breathless si- 
lence. At the close three thundering che irs 
were given " for Col. Smith," and three "for 
the army." — Ed. Reg. ] 



Printfd at tlie Marietta Register O'ffice. 



